Deicer Wrap Up 2011-2012

With temperatures expected to surpass 80F later this week, I'm fairly certain we have closed the books on the winter of 2011-2012.  And this time, the bird bath deicers were barely needed.  Consider: between our first sub-freezing night (Oct. 30th) and last night, we had only 33 days in 134 where the thermometer fell below 32F.
* In none of them did the day time high fall below 35F, and that day (Jan. 3) was an exception.  It was the only winter high between 32F and 41F!
* In 10 of the 33, the low was 30F or 31F, hardly the stuff to make a bird bath freeze solid.
* The low was below 25F a mere five nights.  (Jan.3, 4, 14 and Feb. 12-13). 
I don't think the ground froze more than once!
So I will be packing up the deicer gear this week and storing it until October.  I expect that I'll need it next winter: we have mild winters but they're always followed by colder ones.  And we can't rule out much colder.  Hence I'm glad I have the gear...it has, and will, come in handy!